Goings on in the garden: June

26 June 2018

This morning I stopped off at the community garden to take some pics for my post today and it was frosty: -5℃ overnight. So, as you can imagine things are growing pretty slowly in the garden at the moment. However, there are some exciting developments over the month that hint at spring harvests to come.

Frosty Red Russian Kale

At my community garden plot I've got the kale above, garlic and broad beans. I'm so glad I managed to get enough grass cleared and get these in. There hasn't been much digging done over the past month with kids, life and cold. So, I must get cracking over July and August so that I'm ready to utilise the whole space for spring and summer planting. I've also started a small perennial patch - which consists of some transplanted strawberries and an inherited globe artichoke. But not much happening in this space with the cold weather.

Broad Beans taking a rest in the frost - they'll perk up once the sun hits.

Garlic growing well - yay!

Back on the home front I harvested the last of the summer crops over the past month. To give my brassicas some protection from the hot sun when they went in back in March I planted them under my pumpkin and tomatillo vines. This seemed to work well as they were able to survive the hot sun in the beginning. Now that the vines have been cleared away they are starting to take up space and get productive. They are at different stages of growth so I'm hoping that means staggered harvests across the spring months. It's all pretty much brassicas....

Broccoli head forming.

Main head on a sprouting broccoli plant nearly ready for harvest.

The bathtub: kholrabi, purple cauli, mangel wurzel and parsley.

Purple cauliflower doing it's thing - so exciting.

Lemons oh so close to picking.

I received the lemon tree for Christmas and it is growing great. If this was in the ground I probably would have picked off the blossoms to allow the roots to develop and strengthen the tree but being in a pot there really isn't much point. Looking forward to some fresh lemons.

No planting going on around here this time of the year but I am starting to think about spring time plans. Looking forward to ordering some potatoes from Diggers soon. Have convinced some friends to go halves in a big grow pack so I'll have plenty of different varieties to test out. I gave away my seed potatoes when we left Adelaide so I'm starting from scratch again. Now I just need to get back into that digging so I'll have somewhere to plant them all.

What's growing or going on in your garden at the moment?
Any big plans or harvests or are you waiting (im)patiently for spring?

12 comments

Laura, I have bok choi, silverbeet, spinach, peas and lettuce growing which are going to seed now. There are still some cherry tomatoes too. I have given up growing most of the brassicas due to the pests so buy them at the Farmers Market now. We had 0C last week but I was at the beach so missed the really cold mornings but it was cold enough on the Sunshine Coast.

Sounds like a few good things growing Chel. Are your pumpkins still growing in the trees? We are planning a couple of weeks up QLD way next month so I'm looking forward to dodging some cold weather too.Cheers,Laura

Hi Laura,what beautiful garden photos. I takephotos of the fruit trees, blossom, fruit, vegetables, leafy greens and our chooks quite often. Right now in the garden we are picking mandarins, lemons and blood oranges. There is plenty of rainbow chard for the chooks and the humans. I have started picking the rocket, endive, cos lettuce and spring onions. We still eat salads during winter so leafy greens are a must in our garden.Our Tuscan, Red Russian and Curly Green Kale are all growing well as are the Italian Sprouting Broccoli and cauliflower plants. My celeriac and celery plants are quite small but are doing well. As well as spring onions we are growing brown onions and salad onions. This year for the first time ever I have planted bunching shallots.I use a lot of herbs so we grow them as they are so expensive to buy. Currently in the garden we have -parsley, thyme, chives garlic chives, mint, lemongrass, sage, rosemary, coriander and oregano. Our bay tree and kaffir lime provide their amazing smelling leaves for the kitchen.I am looking forward to many delicious meals over the coming months once all our vegetables are ready to harvest. My vegetarian daughter is very happy to see big bunches of greens in the kitchen ready to be prepared for eating. My rather carnivorous son screws up his nose and says, "We're not having that for dinner are we?" However, he does serve himself the offending green vegetables and quite happily eats more than his share.Sorry for such a long comment Laura but you asked about my garden. Bread especially sourdough and gardening are my passions.Cheers, Maria from Adelaide SA.

I love the comment Maria, so never apologise for a long one - it feels like catching up. I must admit I'm missing my established garden and the Adelaide growing climate - there is so much that can be grown and harvested even in the depths of winter.I think we are very a like in our passions :)

Lots of lovely stuff growing in your garden, Laura. I am going to harvest some beetroot today and maybe a few leeks for a soup. I have lots of lettuce going to seed but new "volunteers" popping up. Potatoes in grow bags are going well, might snaffle a few baby ones for said soup. My broccoli amounted to nothing, just very small florets before flowering. Meg:)

That's a shame about the broccoli Meg. Sounds like you still have a few things growing away nicely though. That reminds me I do have a few leeks in the back of my bathtub - a long way off harvest though!

Your garden looks productive, despite the winter chills. So many plans in the pipeline for the growing season ahead, I just have to prioritise. I won't be able to do them all. I have a lemon in a container, similar to yours too, and haven't picked the few lemons either. I was curious to see how they'd fair. They're a Meyer lemon, different to my Eureka. I'm told they're sweeter. :)

Always the way with gardening plans - ruthless prioritisation! My lemon is actually a Meyer too. I haven't had a meyer for a long time but I do remember them as being a little sweeter and less acidic. Hope yours grows well. You can never have too many lemons.Cheers,Laura